Beathard A Master Of Nfl Architecture

Skip Miller

For eight years Washington Redskins' management played King Arthur's court to the National Football League's Camelot.

There is Redskins' owner Jack Kent Cooke, wizened, shrewd, so very rich. A man who demands the best, whether it be travel accommodations or an offensive tackle.

There is Joe Gibbs, a head coach with a genius for organization and deail. A man whose workaholic habits may some day be his phyiscal undoing.

There was Bobby Beathard, a general manager with verve. A visionary who can divine talent where others saw only hardpan - like looking at minor league baseball player named Jay Schroeder and seeing a quarterback.

For eight years they worked together, meshing their supreme egos and love of hard work to give Washington a 92-42 record and two Super Bowl victories in three appearances.

Beathard would find the players, Gibbs decided who stayed, and Cooke signed the checks. It proved to be a very effective combination.

Thursday, Beathard announced he will be leaving King Arthur's Court. He said he will return to his native California.

His departure is not surprising. He's been restless the last few years. His genius and his joy are building football teams. He took the Redskins from ragamuffin to icing on the cake.

Indeed, in the flesh market aspect of the NFL, Bobby Beathard is without peer. He's not a man of computer printouts or board room tweed. He's a student of people.

When he was hired, Beathard received simple instructions from Cooke: Build a championship team.

Beathard made his first major move a year later. He replaced head coach Jack Pardee with Gibbs, then an assisant with the San Diego Chargers.

Beathard then went after the players.

In later years Cooke liked to tell people he gave Beathard an unlimited budget and Beathard exceeded it.

Beathard also built a championship team. He did it by trade, by raid, and by free agent.

His real coup was dipping heavily into the pool of talent spilling out of the foundering U.S. Football League in the mid-80's. Three former USFL players he signed are still Redskins' mainstays - wide receiver Gary Clark, running back Kelvin Bryant and quarterback Doug Williams.

Beathard's swashbuckling approach almost demands a constant turnover of personnel. The Redskins have a core group of 14 players who have been with the team for six years. All are starters and most have had at least one All-Pro season.

Revolving around this core are the free agents, draft choices, and trade acquisitions. Role players who have a year or two of stardom before they are replaced. Players like running back George Rogers, quarterback Jay Schroeder, wide receiver Charlie Brown, and return man Mike Nelms.

Beathard's approach ran into trouble because of Gibbs' loyalty to his players.

A few years ago there were rumors of a feud between Beathard and Gibbs involving the heroes of the 1983 Super Bowl, quarterback Joe Theismann and running back John Riggins. Beathard wanted to cut them loose. Gibbs wanted to keep them another year.

They were kept. Theismann's career ended with a broken leg. Riggins' ended on the bench.

More recently, the Beathard-Gibbs feud rumors involved the status of veteran offensive linemen Mark May, Jeff Bostic, Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm. All are getting long in the tooth and are injury-prone.

Rumor has it that Beathard wanted to rebuild the offensive line but Gibbs was adamant about keeping this veteran group that helped him to three Super Bowls.

The group is still there, one injury away from retirement. The gamble is the group will make it through the 1989 sason without mishap. Once, this group was the best offensive line in football. Now it's just one of the oldest.

The past few years, Beathard has openly questioned the team's chemistry and esprit de corps.

"There seems to be a spark missing," he said during 1986's 12-4 campaign.

"I just can't tell about this team," he said during the 1987 Super Bowl season.

"We don't seem to have any heart," he said last year.

This year, there won't be any questions. After stocking the larder with draft-day trades and a dozen players from the league's unprotected free agent pool, Beathard is bailing out.

He said he's going to take a year off. That's hard to believe. His career and ego need a rebuilding project the way a football needs air.

He'll be back in somebody's front office.

And what of the Redskins without Beathard?

The Redskins have the talent to remain a playoff contender for the next few years. Then they face a rebuilding job that would, well, make Bobby Beathard drool.